Tiger climbs early, loses momentum late

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PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico – Greyson Sigg’s second-round scorecard at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba featured more shapes than a kindergartener’s workbook. But when the score was all counted at the end of the day, he had moved up plenty of spots on the leaderboard and was in the mix for his career-best PGA TOUR result. Sigg shot a 4-under 67 Friday at El Camaleón Golf Course, a round that included six bogeys, an eagle, eight birdies, and just three pars. Two of the bogeys came in his final three holes when consecutive tee balls on Nos. 16 and 17 found the penalty area. “I felt like a PGA TOUR golfer for I think, you know, maybe 14 holes and then the others I felt like about a five or six handicap,” said Sigg with a laugh. “I played great, just had a tough time getting the ball in the fairway there on the back nine. But made a lot of good putts, game’s feeling good.” A TOUR round with just three pars happened only twice last season (Patrick Cantlay did it in the fourth round of the Travelers Championship and Patton Kizzire in the fourth round of THE PLAYERS) while JJ Henry made just one par in the third round of the 2004 U.S. Open. Sigg admitted he was mentally wiped after a turbulent day, but making eight birdies and an eagle still allowed him to take away some positives. Sigg is looking for his second top-10 finish of this fall, having notched a T9 at the Sanderson Farms Championship. His best-career result on TOUR was a T7 at last season’s 3M Open. After rounds of 66-67 at Mayakoba, Sigg is inside the top 10 heading into the weekend. “I feel great,” said Sigg. “I haven’t really looked at a leaderboard yet, but I know there are some guys going low. But I’m playing good, putting good, so obviously I can go make a run on the weekend, so we’ll see what happens.”

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Graeme McDowell celebrated in different stages at the par-3 17th hole at TPC Louisiana on Friday. It’s a fairly brutal hole, all 216 yards of it, and water guards its entire left side. A par was the score he was chasing in the second round of the Zurich Classic. So when McDowell saw that the beautiful 4-iron he struck safely on land, pitching at the front of the green, that was cause for joy in itself. He didn’t bother to even watch the rest once it bounced. RELATED: Leaderboard | Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson combine to make move in ‘tricky format’ And then his ball released, and rolled, and rolled some more … 40 feet or so … right into the jar for McDowell’s very first ace in a PGA TOUR event. McDowell, the 2010 U.S. Open champion, figures he has “around 14” or so holes-in-one around the world, as many as five as a pro on other tours, but he had never had one on the PGA TOUR. When the ball disappeared, McDowell’s partner, Matt Wallace, was more thrilled than McDowell, giving him a double-armed jolt to the shoulders as everybody else on the tee swarmed him. “It’s a sweet one, obviously,” said McDowell, 41, a four-time winner on the PGA TOUR. “It means I can share the bar bill with Matty, as well, which is great. I think we sent a few beers over to the caddie tent, and we sent a few beers over to the media center, as well, just in case you guys are thirsty.” McDowell’s ace, which came on the eighth hole of the round, provided a nice spark for the McDowell-Wallace tandem, which moved from the cutline into the fringes of contention. A second-round 70 left them at 8-under 136, just five shots out of the lead. Because the hole-in-one arrived at the PGA TOUR’s two-man team event it was not deemed as being “official” by the PGA TOUR. As far as McDowell and his partner were concerned, you can keep the asterisk. “Nah, that counts,” Wallace said. Added McDowell, “Official? I don’t care if it’s official, unofficial … I’m pretty sure it says ‘1’ on the scorecard.” With a big weekend ahead, his own celebration would have to wait. Maybe a little red wine with dinner, McDowell said. “It was a nice little shot in the arm for us, and we birdied the next, and we put ourselves in a nice little slot going into the weekend,” McDowell said. “… We may have a glass of wine, but we’ll save the celebrations, hopefully, for Sunday night.” Rest easy. If McDowell and Wallace were to win, it would be counted as official. And they’ll both know the shot that got them going.

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